Trouble logging in?If you can't remember your password or are having trouble logging in, you will have to reset your password. If you have trouble resetting your password (for example, if you lost access to the original email address), please do not start posting with a new account, as this is against the forum rules. If you create a temporary account, please contact us right away via Forum Support, and send us any information you can about your original account, such as the account name and any email address that may have been associated with it.

In short, there are many areas which left me scratching my head and go,"Something feels empty here." The execution of the plot was rather weak, and there are times where I stuck around just for the songs.

Score: 6/10 from me. This series comes with a lot of caveats, and I find myself shaking my head with every new manga chapter that rolls in. Too soon, Kyo Ani. Too soon.

In short, there are many areas which left me scratching my head and go,"Something feels empty here." The execution of the plot was rather weak, and there are times where I stuck around just for the songs.

Score: 6/10 from me. This series comes with a lot of caveats, and I find myself shaking my head with every new manga chapter that rolls in. Too soon, Kyo Ani. Too soon.

Amen brother. Like Myself; Yourself, it spent too much time on sides and forgot the plot for a long time. Unless, you consider K-on slice of life... which some people do. But even so, K-on WAS supposed to have some sense of plot. It wasn't meant to be Minami-ke.

Animation Quality: 7
It didn't blow me away visually, and there were a couple segments that caught my attention as odd, but for the most part I don't expect more then what was given from a show of this genre (which I consider to be slice of life).

Voice Actors: 10
I have zero complains here.

Script: 7
This seems to be the big "omg" section for some people but to me it's really not. I came to this anime to have a good time. The "story", such as it was, provided that and thus I'm happy with it. Perhaps one could say "It could have been more." but taken for what it is, a light bit of entertainment, it's just fine.

Soundtrack: 8
Nothing much to say here. I liked both the opening and ending enough that I still look forward to them when I start each episode (dispite the sheer number of times I've heard them now). The music in between didn't amaze but also left me with no complains.

Editing: NA
I'm not nearly a big enough animation buff to be able to judge a topic like this.

Enjoyment: 10
I did indeed enjoy it. I've watched each episode many times and will gladly do so again given the time. This really is the key section and one that basicly determins the anime's overall "grade" for me. A show can be deep and thoughtful, or a masterpiece artisticly, but if I'm not enjoying watching it then that really doesn't mean anything. K-On let me sit back for 20 minutes and smile. Plenty of other anime don't get that distinction.

Emotional Involvement: 7
It's hard to say because the show really wasn't trying to grab your heart and wring tears out of it. I liked the characters well enough that I was happy for them when they were happy and sad for them when they were sad. Again, I'm not asking for more from the show then that so I got what I wanted.

Overall: 9
An enjoyable way to spend 20 minutes of your time. It's not perfect but then again nothing is (or at least I've not been lucky enough to have seen it).

I dont see how people can criticize this show for having a weak plot or a messed plot while praising Haruhi. At least, as average as it was, K-On was understandable, and the characters didn't make me want to stab myself in the eye.

I dont see how people can criticize this show for having a weak plot or a messed plot while praising Haruhi. At least, as average as it was, K-On was understandable, and the characters didn't make me want to stab myself in the eye.

*Rhetorical question, no need to answer; I'm avoiding all hype and buzz and rants and raves and fuming mouths and burning effigies until it finishes, just like I did with, well, K-On!*

~~~

Well, personally I find this show a pleasant ride. Unfortunately, it also stops at simply pleasant. There's nothing groundbreaking and I did not laugh myself until my stomach could take no more like, say, Fumoffu! or Minami-ke, but this is not a show that offends; unless you're offended at all things moe of course. Most of the moe jokes didn't really do it for me, but I wasn't facepalming. The music wasn't that spectacular either, but at least there's an excuse that they're still beginners, and they're doing practically bubblegum pop (courtesy of Mio XD).

However, the characters are nice, nobody makes me hate them -- unlike how I despised Tomo and Yukari-sensei in AzuDai -- as even the lazy characters have redeeming points. Mio nicely surprised me most of all since all the avatars floating around make her out as some kind of moeblob -- which turns out to be only half of her.

What's nicest though is that when it's actually in the "slice of life" mood rather than the "gag" one, it works wonderfully. Episode 13 with its subdued, winter mood gave me a sweet flashback to a very similar episode in Haruhi, which I believe is intentional on the part of KyoAni. There weren't too many attempted moe jokes or sitcom plots and it made the characters felt warm and real compared to their usual roles as standard all-girl cast characters, and also revealed that I did at some point connect to these characters to an extent.

TL; DR: this is not a or or kind of anime for me, but it is at least a nice warm .

Dang it Avalon, you c(XD LOL)-block Shirou and Reinforce, but don't protect his mind in other ways? What is wrong, you woman?
Friendship, be made! Magical power, gather! Starlight Breaker.... this world!

Since nothing I could say about K-On could possibly come as any surprise to anyone at this point, I'll just put my final stamp on this show and be done with it. Average.

I bet you will reverse that statement if they showcased a more in depth relationship between Ritsu and Mio.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Animation Quality: 8
For the most part the animation quality was good, however at points it slipped, and at point I plain and simple didn't like it, however it was by no means bad - the level of detail was good, overall I thought the animation quality was pleasing.
Voice Actors: 7
They were rookies, and you can't expect rookies to be great, however it wasn't bad, I've heard professional voice actors slip up much more. On the flip side the characters were very exaggerated in their nature, it wasn't the most difficult thing to voice act.
Script: 4
And this is where the series really failed, the script was just annoying. None of the episodic plots were above average, some of the writing was plain clumsy, and the characters were repetitive and rather boring - generally the script was awful - it certainly didn't keep me interested. On the flip side there were some good jokes and funny moments.
Soundtrack: 6
I thought all the music was rather average, nothing really jumped out as WOW, but nothing really made me want to press mute.
Enjoyment: 5
It had potential, I must admit it had potential, but to me it ended up as another heavily cliched anime that just didn't do much for me - it caused a bit of hype, caused some anticipation, then left me feeling completely indifferent, there were some good moments, but they were out weighed by the bad ones.
Emotional Involvement: 4
Well nothing particularly melodramatic or interesting happened, there was no emotional involvement, just minor involvement in a few of the sub plots.

Final score: 6 - animation was good, as were the technical aspects in general, but the main body simply wasn't up to it.

First off, I want to say that's a strange roller coaster of a ride with K-ON! Yes, it's a Kyoani show, but it's also nothing more than a light and fluffy SOL anime that shouldn't have had riled up this much conflict in my heart. It's kind of embarrassing now that I think about it, but there was a lot more thought and discussion put into this than say something like Eden of the East. Regardless, here's hoping this final analysis puts all that to an end, and I can finally move on with my life.

Animation Quality

For a show that's labeled as SOL, the amount of animation and detail given to it was definitely one of the highlights of the show. Sure, it's not mind-blowing... it's not even on the same level as CLANNAD or anything; however, the easy-going and laid back style fit well with the series in my opinion. There's lots of little details which Kyoani took into account that deserve brownie points: the natural movement and interactions between the characters, the hands, the feet, the hair, etc. My only two complaints are that they didn't spend as much moolah animating them actually playing their instruments (the panning to still frames annoys me, but it's understandable), and at the beginning I was excepting at least one sequence on the same level as that infamous Haruhi performance. What they did do though, they did really well, especially in the opening and ending. The other issue I had is a minor one, but the child/chibi version of the characters look rally weird and deformed, most notably Yui and Ui at the start of the Christmas episode. Apart from that, animation was as solid as it can be.

Voice Actors

Another one of the things I absolutely adored in this series... the voice acting. Of course, most of it has to do with the fact that the VAs for the four main characters are relatively scrubs in the voice acting business. On that note, the fact that they were able to hit their respective characters personalities spot on without ever faltering or sounding too grating... well I can do nothing but hope that the popularity of this show takes their career to new heights and great places. Special props go to Yōko Hikasa, as she was my favorite performance throughout the entire series. Not only was she able to quickly ascertain the right tones for the many moods of Mio, she pulls them off really well. When Mio is frightened, shy, or nervous... Yōko makes sure that we can feel those feelings she is feeling in her voice. Not only that, but she really shines when she sings too! Aki Toyosaki also gets special mention, because pulling off something like Yui's voice isn't easy, and in my opinion, it was just the right amount of high-pitched cuteness... never got annoying to me. There's also the fact that she managed to keep up with that raspy voice and the end of episode 5 and all of episode 6... AND sing with it as well. She's not as good of a singer as Yōko is, but she's still damn talented and I still love her. All in all, the whole cast was great, and both Mio and Yui were beyond great.

Script

Here's where things start going stale. Yes, the anime is pretty much an adaption of a 4Koma, and the problem with that is usually a chapter of a 4Koma isn't exactly brimming with enough material to fill up a full episode. The main problem with this is, the source material itself isn't all that good, as it doesn't utilize the fact that they're a music club as much as I would have wanted them to. The first two episodes were good hooks, as they drew me in to the series and really made me think this could be something different compared to the other SOL slithering out around there. Thing is, for most of the series, they tend to forget that they're a Light Music club, and thus resort to repeated jokes and gags that have been seen a million times before. I have to give it more credit than I have in the past, as I did enjoy these jokes and found them cute, enough to make me watch the next episode; however, that itching feeling in the back of my head that they could have made this much more enjoyable than it already was will always be there. One thing I can say I didn't like with confidence though is using Mio's "moe" as a pillar for their humor and basically being what makes up the first half of the show. I like moe as much as the next person, but even I know there's a line that's obviously been crossed, and the amount of moe they milked out of Mio at the start really annoyed me, so I'm glad that died down during the second half. I've said this numerous times, but episodes like Sawako's introduction and the first live performance for the Freshman are the best examples of this show taking advantage of its setting and using it to be unique and humorous. It's few and far between, even for something that's supposed to be a light and fluffy show about nothing.

Another thing that requires attention is the original material that Kyoani had no choice but to implement into the show, and that led into some unnecessary and forced drama. I'll go ahead and say that I did like the drama, if only because it shook things up a bit and brought some life into the series, but could it not have come out of nowhere and done way better? You damn well bet it could have. Really, if Kyoani only implemented little chunks and hints of the drama and built it up to say the climax of episode 11, then it would have a been a lot better and much more believable in my eyes. The only "forced drama" bit that I really took in was the situation with Azusa joining the band. She was a relatively new character and I felt that they really did build up the tension and frustration along with the viewer up to the climax and Azusa breaking down. Kyoani knew what they were getting themselves into, they could have planned ahead, and fit both the source material and build up to something more... and it would have been a much better and more enjoyable script in my eyes. For what it is now though, I have to call it below average, even from a "show about nothing" standard.

For characters individually, I find it funny that that same problematic root etched deep with their bands structure can be said about the characters and their relationship. Azusa put it best at the end of episode 9 when she started critiquing them playing their individual instruments, but they sound so good when they get together and perform... that's exactly my view on the characters. Individually, the characters are your generic personality characters with little to no depth or even non-existent (hi Mugi). What covers that up though, is how well they play off of each other. United they stand, divided they fall. Yui is the best catalyst out of all of them, as her relationship with Ritsu, Ui, and Nodoka made for some cute and interesting moments in the show. Besides that, there is an okay amount of development for the characters, but maybe I'm just expecting too much out of a slice of life show again. It just feels so inconsistent, having one-dimensional characters at the start, then have them develop out of nowhere ten episodes later. There was a path they did follow, but it was a shaky one I would have liked straightened out.

Speaking of inconsistencies, my the character I have the biggest issue with to this day has to be the club adviser Sawako. When she was introduced, she was shown to have a crazy and unpredictable heavy metal personality, which was one of the reasons episode 5 was such a good episode. After that episode though, her personality changes to hat of a cosplay fanatic who likes dressing the girls up. What? I'm all for characters having more than one hobby, but her heavy metal persona just vanished, and instead they replaced that interesting and funny character with a not so funny costume of the week provider. Thanks K-ON, she was shaping up to be one of my favorite characters too, but now she's just as forgettable as Mugi.

Soundtrack

Mixed bag on this one. One one side, saying that the actual OST is forgettable? Quite the understatement, because there are really only one or two tracks that stand out in my mind, and even then not by much. Sure, it's SOL, so I wasn't really expecting anything beautifully composed and stuff, but that doesn't stop me from docking points on something it didn't do well in. What it did do well in, and what saves this section from getting a far worse score than it has now, is the vocal tracks of the show. It was supposed to be the main selling point of the show to begin with, and they didn't disappoint once the girls got up on stage and started performing. Not only do the songs have... unique titles, but they're to the point where I've listened to the songs on numerous occasions outside of watching the anime. Some people complain there weren't enough songs, but with the OP and ED + the insert songs, I think 5 is a good number for a 13 episode series. I'm not the only one who thinks these songs are great too, as the single CDs have been selling like hotcakes all over Japan. So yes, the greatness of their vocal tracks is the highest peak this show has managed to elevate to, while their OST is one of the lowest of the lows.

Enjoyment/Emotional Involvement

Yes I enjoyed the series. Did I like it more than Haruhi? Yes. Did I like it more than Lucky Star? No. Did I like it as a stand alone SOL series? Yes. Compared to other SOL series? Would have been a lot better if they used the musical aspect of the show as a catalyst for their gags and jokes more often, but I say it's one of the better SOL I've seen.

As for emotional involvement, there really two situations in which I felt anything for the characters. I've already the first one earlier, that being the situation with Azusa during episode 9. I felt sorry and understood Azusa's desire to join the band and play, only to find out that they do nothing but loaf around. The frustration building up in Azusa built up along the same time as mine, and the climax made me understand Azusa better as a character and made me want to slap the other members of the cast minus Mio. The other moment where I felt a connection to a character emotionally was the final sequence with Yui during episode 12. I have to give this part a lot more credit than I probably should be, as I'll once again admit it gave me goosebumps. It made me understand what the show was about, Yui's development as a character (no matter how little people consider it), and the bond with her friends. Repeating myself again, that flashback run would have meant a lot more to people if there were more drops of development throughout the show, but I understand what they were trying to do, and I can understand Yui's fear of growing up without doing nothing and finding a place that accepts her for who she is.

Conclusion

So with all the hype, anti-hype and Kyoani pain train long gone, I can say with confidence that I enjoyed this series in it's purest form. Yes, I have a lot of problems with it, but it makes up for it in other categories, and it's something that I probably will end up remembering down the road. As you can see, I probably put too much thought and time into a show as simple as this, but this is something you should just enjoy on a whim. It's light and fluffy, and taking it as anything more than that would probably ruin the entertainment for you, as it did for me. It's nothing special, it's nothing different or unique (though it could have been), but I enjoyed the ride, and will probably end up getting in line at least one more time.

K-On! is a cute little series. It's light-hearted, and although a few episodes were kind of let-downs, I enjoyed the overall atmosphere. It's pretty tranquil compared to some other things I've seen. It was funny, but I never found myself in stitches. Although it will never compare to Clannad or Keroro Gunso, I will always remember K-On! being the silly-cute, senseless little show. I like slice-of-life stories, and K-On! kept it interesting even if nothing world-changing happened. After exhausting my tear ducts over the amazingness that was Clannad, I needed a break.

It was novel in the earlier episodes, but towards the end it seemed to slack a little. Episode 11 left me confused, thinking that Ritsu had a thing for Mio or something, and the last episode was sort of anti-climatic. Well, when you compare it to Haruhi's performance, anyway.

9.8/10

Animation:

Spoiler for Animation:

As usual, I love KyoAni's animation. Most of the reason I watched K-On! was because I loved the way they animated it. There was a lot of detail put into it: the shine in Mio's tears as she was harassed by Sawa-chan, Yui's bed hair, everyone's hands--I like the hands--and the moments when their expressions become over-exaggerated. I found myself going back in videos just to watch a clip of animation again. Makes me wonder what the other shows would be like if they were animated like that? What Ayu would look like running into Yuuichi? Misuzu drinking a juice box? Kyou launching a dictionary at Sunohara?

The 12th episode's animation wasn't as good at the others', though. I didn't really care much for the side views of Mio and Yui singing; their heads looked really weird.

In any case, 10/10

Characters:

Spoiler for Yui:

When I saw Yui, I was like, "Seriously, all she likes to do is bum around?" Her lack of direction at the beginning of the series really bugged me, and I wondered what the heck she was going to do with her life. I thought, though, that at least she wasn't giving up with trying to find a path. Although she bugged me with her air-headedness earlier on in the series (only way I could describe it), I think she got good enough character development. I don't really have a lot to say about Yui, but she has a lot of potential.

Spoiler for Ritsu:

Oooh boooyyy Ritsu. No offense, but I never really liked her as much as the other characters. She was somewhat forceful, loud, and annoying, and wasn't really "moe" at all. It's not like she didn't care for her friends, though. Or at least has a very weird way of showing it. In any case, K-On! wouldn't be the same without her. After all, who else is going to cause Mio's freak-outs over mold, or play "Lost" with Yui on the beach? Regardless of whether I liked her or not, she helped make K-On! funny.

Spoiler for Mio:

Yay, Mio! She's my favorite character =D Erhrm. Anyway, I always liked Mio. She provided a lot of laughs, and a lot of moe, which was part of the laughs. She was like the "only sane girl" at first, until we find out about her fear of mold, and her shyness underneath her composed exterior. She never really fit a specific character mold, like "tsundere" or "ditz" or anything like that. Her personality was unique compared to the other characters, and I liked that. I can see why everyone likes Mio: she's the most unique, and really cute, d'awwww.

Spoiler for Tsumugi:

Tsumugi, Tsumugi...What do I have to say about her? I think that a major part of the After School Tea Time's distraction comes from her. After all, she's the one bringing cake every day. Although, it probably wasn't intentional. She reminded me a lot like Miyuki from Lucky Star, but the big difference is that she could actually do something cool, like cause a lot of fun vacation scenes and cake-eating scenes. Other than that, she never really had a lot of character development. Oh well.

Spoiler for Azunyan:

I mean Azusa. Whatever. She's my second favorite character. I really like cute things, so seeing Azunyan meow was really really cute. When they told her to meow, I thought, "Oh it's just going to be 'nya' and it's going to be boring," but it was actually really cute! I'm glad she isn't a tsundere, either. Like Mio, she has a unique personality. I was a little unsure of her at first, because of her being a "sixth ranger" and playing the same instrument as Yui, but I am very satisfied with her character.

Something like that or more. I bet my Azunyan that everyone here will give it a 100/10.

Cmon Kyoani! Show all these hater-raters that they are all hypocrites!

Activate skill MugiVision! Moeeee Moeeeeeeee KYUN!!!!~

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Having come into this as someone who normally doesn't watch anime until it turns up on R1 DVDs, this was an interesting experience. Now, I admit, I started watching this series during the ramp-up to the recursive loop that's described Haruhi 2009, but I kept coming back to it through its whole run. So, without further ado:

Animation Quality - 7/10
Overall, the animation is good. Didn't blow me away, sure, but it was easy on the eyes otherwise.

Voice Actors - 9/10
I admit, I usually watch dubs. I'm a bit out of my element here, but I actually find myself being afraid of what's going to happen when/if this show gets licensed in R1. I felt the voices really fit the characters. I read on the forums that the cast of K-ON! are rookies, but I couldn't really tell.

Script - 5/10
The script . . . pure fluff. Light comedy and dropped balls . . . so many promising threads they could've followed up on and fleshed-out better. The characters, mostly cutesy cardboard cutouts. If you're looking for high art, K-ON! ain't it. If you're looking for something soft and fluffy to lift you up when you're feeling blue, then this series is for you.

Soundtrack - 8/10
There's a lot of repeat-worthy material here. I liked it. Can't say much more than that.

Enjoyment - 7/10
I enjoyed this series. Didn't really fall in love with it, and at times, I felt a lot like Azu-nyan did at first. But overall, it was fun to watch.

Emotional Involvement - 5/10
The fluffy plot, the somewhat two-dimensional characters, and some of the directorial choices made it difficult to care deeply about the characters and their plight (or near lack thereof.) I admit, I nearly cried manly tears when Yui was running back to school with her guitar and trying not to let her friends down. Amazing, given how the show didn't really pull me into her climb from shiftless slacker to shiftless slacker in a band who happens to have perfect pitch.

But, for the fuwa fuwa time this show is apparently supposed to be, this is actually about the right amount of emotional involvement. Just enough to get you to keep watching, but not enough to make it stop being fun.

Conclusion - 6.5/10Fuwa Fuwa Time describes this series perfectly. This show's about as deep as your typical kiddie pool. If I only had slice of life and moe series to compare it to, it'd get a 9 out of 10, easy. But I have to compare it to everything else I've ever watched, and by that standard, it's only above-average

Animation Quality: 8
It wasn't as beautifully animated as the likes of Haruhi or Clannad, but it suited the series. I wish they would've stuck more to the original manga-ka's style rather than a Lucky Star/Haruhi mix.

Voice Actors: 10
I'm not picky about voice actors, so I had no problems. I especially loved it when Yui's VA would speak in her "sumo" voice.

Script: 6
It was average. I think the funny moments were more visually-based, rather than dependent on the script.

Soundtrack: 7
I loved the songs. My favorite was Cagayake! Girls. But the background music was pretty forgettable.

Editing: N/A

Enjoyment: 6
At first, I loved K-ON!. My enjoyment gradually decreased, and I wasn't excited to watch it anymore. The overexposure of Moe!Mio has a correlation with this, methinks. lol Luckily, Mio went back to a tolerable amount of moe later on in the series. The bonus episode is an exception though; it was my favorite episode in the series. (and after that episode 2)

Emotional Involvement: 9
I'll admit it. I can rant on K-On! characters and certain characters' popularity for years. I guess you can consider that emotional involvement.